


Professional. Sure.

by myheroesrbands



Category: Marvel
Genre: Cute, Fluffy, M/M, Rhodeytony Day, rhodey is two years older, rhodey works for the local newspaper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-06 08:24:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20288416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myheroesrbands/pseuds/myheroesrbands
Summary: In which Rhodey has to interview Tony. They hit it off and ten years later - well, read it and see.





	Professional. Sure.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy RhodeyTony Day everyone!!! Check me out over on twitter [here.](https://twitter.com/stankrhodes) Also this fic is based on [this](https://twitter.com/stankrhodes/status/1140335373438062592?s=20) twitter post. Enjoy!!

_ “Tony, you’ve been asked to do an interview with the L.A. Sun. The interviewer doesn’t want it to be too formal but he also doesn’t want you to be drunk. Understood?” _

Tony’s newest PA was speaking into the telephone and Tony was _ kind of _understanding what she was saying. In his mind, he heard the words “interview” and “not drunk” and made his assessment.

“Bummer,” he responded and proceeded to set up the interview and go through the details with Janine (was that her name? He couldn’t really remember).

After finishing the call, Tony sighed to himself and proceeded to continue his work in his father’s workshop. It wasn’t that Howard didn’t want Tony to have his own workshop, it was just that Howard didn’t want Tony to have his own workshop. That definitely soured Tony’s mood from the moment he heard he was going to have to share a working space with his father. (Of course, that wouldn’t be going on for long seeing as Tony was about to be headed to New York to take over SI R&D with New York City becoming his new base of operations.)

Moving around the lab was effortless and in all honesty, this lab wasn’t really Howard’s anymore since Tony came in and set up his own equipment. With the new SI weapon’s deal about to be signed and his father breathing down his neck for _ more, _Tony definitely needed this hard-earned free-time in the lab.

Sometimes he sat and thought about what it would look like with him as the CEO of Stark Industries. He’d never been comfortable with the weapons industry and the one time he tried to stop developing for the company, his father _ found _ a way to _ make _him stay.

So in essence, Tony never really envisioned himself as the transformative or futuristic type of CEO that Howard was, but he certainly didn’t envision himself running a company that destroyed the lives of innocent people. 

Hours later when Tony had been working well into the evening on a new project of his own, he heard his mother’s voice over the house intercom calling him to eat. He begrudgingly left the lab and went to his room to freshen up for dinner. 

“How is your project going Anthony?” His mother asked to try to keep dinner from being as awkward as possible. Luckily, Howard wasn’t eating with them or else he would have had to make up some bullshit that sounded like a weapons project because that was exactly what he _ wasn’t _working on. 

“It’s good actually. It’s starting to look like an Artificial Intelligence system that will be able to do anything I want it to.” His eyes lit up as he spoke but his mother went on about her dinner — not noticing his passion. He slumped into his seat and continued to eat. 

When they finished, they quietly exited the kitchen and Tony went to his room for the night.

The next week went by in a blur. Tony diligently worked on his new AI system and, as per usual, ignored his father’s calls. The night before the interview, he and his mother had dinner once again. It wasn’t too late when they finished, but he didn’t want to have to deal with an interview on little to no sleep (or a million pounds of coffee either) so he went to bed. 

The morning of the interview, Tony woke up bright and early and threw on a cheetah print, low-cut v-neck and black jeans with a bunch of jewelry and called his PA when he finished breakfast. “What time is the person getting here?” 

“They should be arriving within the hour. Please tell me you’re prepared?” Tony cringed a bit because he really could be a handful, and he didn’t want to burn this PA out as he had done with the others. 

“Yeah. I’m ready. Can you make sure that when they get here they tell Jarvis they’re with the Sun so that Jarvis can let them in?” 

“Will do. Is that all, Mr. Stark?” 

“That’s all. Thank you.”

For the next hour, Tony fiddled around with things in the mansion. Nothing really caught his eye and kept his attention for too long so when Jarvis came to the lounge room to alert him the person conducting his interview had arrived, Tony simply shrugged and went to meet who he was going to speak with. 

When Tony saw the man that stood before him, he stopped dead in his tracks. 

_ He was beautiful. _

The blazer he was wearing with a denim shirt and pants made Tony want to drop dead then and there. Fortunately, he didn’t and proceeded to greet the man. 

“James Rhodes from the L.A. Sun. Sorry if I’m a bit late-”

“No, no. You’re not late at all. Is there a specific place around the mansion that you want to conduct the interview?” 

“Actually, yes. Is there any place outside that works?”

Because the Malibu Mansion was built on the edge of a cliff, there obviously was a place outside to sit and relax, so the two of them headed to a nice area where they would be comfortable and not be fully distracted by the sounds of the ocean. 

When they sat down, James pulled out his tape recorder and pressed start.

“Okay. So before we begin, I just want you to know a little bit about this interview if your Personal Assistant hasn’t told you already. So the L.A. Sun heard that Stark Industries was getting ready to manufacture a prototype weapon for military use. We know this isn’t unusual for SI, but we realized that whenever there was a new weapons deal for the company, we only spoke to your father. With your father currently being unavailable, we agreed that your voice was just as important — and arguably more important than his. You design most weapons-”

“Design would be an understatement,” Tony interrupted and smirked. Across from him, James was startled by the statement but carried on with his introduction into the interview.

“You design most of the weapons for the company, so we’re here to get your perspective on weapons production during this day and age. This is just for the record. Please state your name.” 

“Anthony Stark.” Tony felt a little bad about what he was going to say in this interview, but he didn’t want to sugar coat anything about his feelings and if Howard had anything to say about it, then, oh well. 

“Alright let’s begin. You’re super young.”

“That’s a funny way to start but yes. 20 years young to be exact.”

“How are you gearing up to lead the Research and Development division of Stark Industries? I’m 22 and I’m working for the local newspaper.” James laughed as he spoke and Tony smiled softly.

He caught the way James slipped his age into the conversation and went on to answer the question. “Well if I had to be honest, my three degrees have really put me ahead of everyone else and Ho- my dad can’t really deny that, so he’s putting me in charge. 22 you say?” Tony internally facepalmed at his failed attempt at flirting and let the interview carry on. 

The interview wasn’t too long — about 45 minutes — and James got wonderful material on Tony’s opinions on weapons manufacturing that differed greatly from his father’s. When they finished, James was gathering his things when Tony stopped him.

_ It’s now or never, _he told himself before speaking. “Hey, I know this is kind of forward of me to ask but could I possibly get your number?” Taken aback, James furrowed his eyebrows.

“Why?” He was pulling his messenger bag on his shoulder and somehow that made him so adorable to Tony. 

“For reasons,” he said and shrugged. A cheeky grin popped up on his face and James’ confusion lessened. 

“Fine but I’d rather we kept this professional.”

_ Professional. Sure. _

...

Ten years later Tony Stark was CEO of Stark Industries and James Rhodes was a First Lieutenant in the Air Force. They had, of course, stayed in contact after that first interview and, at this point in their friendship, had known each other better than anyone else. 

It was Christmas Eve 2000 and Tony was in New York working on a new weapons deal (because Obadiah was still pushing that weapons manufacturing was the only way SI was going to stay at the top of the stock market). It had been two weeks since he had last heard from Rhodey, and he was beginning to get concerned. 

He knew Rhodey sometimes had missions where there was complete radio silence but none of them lasted this long. So Tony felt he had valid reasoning for his concern until Rhodey showed up on his doorstep, in uniform, with a bouquet of flowers. 

“Rhodey. What-”

“Let me talk before I chicken out.”

They were standing in Tony’s doorway, unmoving, and — oh god, Rhodey looked like he was going to cry. 

“I’ve loved you for a while, Tony,” his tear-filled laugh made Tony smile softly. “But I was on that mission with no way to contact you or hear you and I realized I don’t think I would be okay not being able to talk with you for that long ever again. So I’m here on your doorstep on Christmas Eve to tell you I love you. I love you so damn much, Tony.” 

Tony was shocked. Hell, he would say shocked wasn’t a good enough word to describe how he felt at that moment.

“Rhodey,” he started and was immediately cut off.

“Dammit. I knew you didn’t feel the same. I just made this awkward. I’m gonna go,” he said and the sniff he gave after made Tony’s heartache so bad that he grabbed a hold of Rhodey’s elbow before he could move too far. 

“You didn’t make anything awkward. You _ couldn’t _make anything awkward between us. I love you, too, Rhodey. I’ve loved you for so long.” Tony watched the hope return to Rhodey’s eyes and looked down at the flowers in his hand. 

“Well? Are you going to give me the flowers or not?” 

“Well? Are you going to let me in or not?” Rhodey mocked in return and Tony laughed while pulling the older man into his home. 

They were together at last.


End file.
